This weekly quiz from YS tests your domain knowledge, business acumen, and lateral thinking skills (see the previous edition here). In this 29th edition of the quiz, we present issues tackled by real-life entrepreneurs in their startup journeys.
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What would you do if you were in their shoes? At the end of the quiz, you will find out what the entrepreneurs themselves actually did. Would you do things differently?
Check out YS’s Book Review section as well, with takeaways from over 330 titles on creativity and entrepreneurship, and our weekend PhotoSparks section on creativity in the arts.
Q1: Real estate transformation
The pandemic has driven the demand for safety and hygiene in commercial and housing spaces. It has also transformed the way real estate is sold and bought, through targeting campaigning and attractive content on websites. How has this been achieved?
Q2: Diversity and inclusion
Promoting diversity in the workforce helps stem some of the biases and inequities in society. It can also make the firm a desirable and creative place to work at. What are some other key benefits of inclusion, and how can such empowerment be strengthened?
Q3: Culture and leadership
Storytelling by founders has been established as an effective way to describe, nurture and promote organisational values. These can be reinforced through each all-hands meeting, and by capturing them in well-designed posters. How else can be culture be addressed and preserved?
Q4: Startup launch
Founders need a good team, product-market fit, and a promising growth opportunity to get off the ground. Market timing and unique positioning also help, along with adequate funding. What else do they need to succeed?
Q5: Food tech
Digital technologies have transformed the food sector in multiple ways, particularly during the pandemic. It has boosted the cloud kitchen model, and improved safety and hygiene in the supply and distribution phases. What’s another tech contribution to food retail?
Answers!
Congratulations on having come this far! But there’s more to come – answers to these five questions (below), as well as links to articles with more details on the entrepreneurs’ solutions. Happy reading, happy learning – and happy creating!
A1: Real estate transformation
“Tech and digital intervention in real estate are much more prominent today than during the pre-COVID era,” explains Govind Rai, CEO and Co-Founder of Insomniacs. The startup provides end-to-end sales and marketing solutions for the real estate sector.
He cites a number of tech-driven transformations in this space. “Virtual Reality finally made an entry into real estate. Due to the ban on physical site visits, realtors started offering virtual site experiences,” he describes. Read more about how AI is also transforming sales and marketing here.
A2: Diversity and inclusion
“Having a diverse team ensures creating easy-to-use, accessible, and inclusive products,” affirms Ankit Mathuria, Chief Technology Officer, OYO Rooms. To build products with wide appeal, having people with different backgrounds and mindsets helps.
On International Women’s Day, Oyo rolled out #WomenInCtrl, its first women-only hackathon in India. Read more about this hospitality platform’s invitation for women developers in this industry here.
A3: Culture and leadership
“Culture obviously is not about talking about things in the all-hands meeting or putting up some nice posters… culture was just defining our own acts every day,” explains Rajnish Kumar, Co-founder of ixigo.
“It does start at hiring with the right attributes. We hire more for attitude than for skill,” adds fellow Co-founder Aloke Bajpai. For example, empathy is a core value, and is assessed during candidate interviews. Read more about other desirable values such as transparency here.
A4: Startup launch
“Early-stage entrepreneurs not only need access to capital, but also a lot of help in refining their business model, product thinking, and go-to-market strategies,” observes Krishna Kumar, CEO, Simplilearn.
“Investors wanted certain things in place like product-market-fit, powerful business model, and demonstration of a strong competitive advantage,” adds Raj Snehil Juneja, Managing Partner at VC firm Disruptors Capital. But many startups are not ready yet at this stage. Read more about what investors can do to improve the chances of startup success here.
A5: Food tech
Technology has gained a robust foothold in many segments of the food industry. It has brought efficiency to the food retail sector, especially in the pandemic era, according to Prerna Kalra, CEO and Co-founder of Daalchini Technologies.
“Smart vending machines — which uses technologies to create an automated retail solution to deliver products without human staffing — have witnessed a tremendous surge in their utilisation,” she observes. Such IoT-enabled smart vending machines help with convenient personalised shopping for packaged food and other products. Read more about food-tech impacts here.
YS has also published the pocketbook ‘Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: A World of Inspiration for Startups’ as a creative and motivational guide for innovators (downloadable as apps here: Apple, Android).
